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In the leadup to Ali Barter‘s forthcoming second record, Hello, I’m Doing My Best, she’s today given us another taste of what’s to come with ‘January’, the third track to be pulled from the record.

‘January’ is an ode to the rinse and repeat ritual felt every New Year. Words like “Said that I’d be thinner/Said that we’d be better friends/But I’m still on the treadmill,” put into context the hardened reality of our probably unlikely-to-be-fulfilled New Years resolutions.

“It seems like every year, January rolls around and I’m still trying to fix the same things as the year before. The older I get the more I realise that I don’t change, this is all I got. So fuck it.”

It’s true that some things don’t change, and one thing that hasn’t wavered is Barter’s ability to hit those high notes. ‘January’ crushingly captures the elasticity of her vocal chops, giving us precision all throughout.

The new single also comes with an accompanying clip. Directed by frequent collaborator, Anna Phillips, this one-shot visual puts the mundaneness of the New Year’s ritual into the frame.

“The clip idea came from a line in another song off the record ‘Cocktail Bar’. The line is “Dumped out on the lawn again” and it’s about a time when I was drinking a lot. I thought it would be cool to paint this picture, in a scene. The clip is an anti-climax, a girl wasted at a party again, nothing much happens, but it’s beautiful and dull and she’ll probably be there next January 1st,” Barter said.

Barter will be heading out on a mammoth 25 date Australian and global tour this September, and finishing up in November.

Hello, I’m Doing My Best will officially be out and into the world on Friday, 18th October via Inertia Music.